Having Trouble Believing

[Anthoneee]

Hello! Recently I have developed an interest in developing my psychic abilities, but I feel like I am not making any progress. Coming from believing that all paranormal things were fake, I feel like I am sabotaging myself in the back of my head with everything I try. I am pretty good at getting myself in a temporary state where I can have complete confidence that something psychic will happen, but "temporary" is the key word. So I'm curious if anyone has any suggestions for how to get that first step of validation to help weaken my doubts. Thank you for your help.

[Anna Conlan]

They say 'seeing is believing' but actually it's the other way round – you have to believe, or at least be open to the belief that psychic stuff is real in order to see some evidence. You don't need complete confidence. In fact, few of us manage that when we're starting out, you just need an openness to it on some level. It sounds like you have that already.

Once you have the openness, you just have to take the risk that it might be a load of rubbish OR possibly being something that really helps you in your life. It also might be possible that you end up looking and feeling like an idiot for believing in it, so it is a risk, but I don't think it's a big one.

The upside is that it may improve your life and change your perceptions in lots of wonderful ways.

Btw, I just want to say that I think doubts are normal and healthy. Trying to get yourself to have complete confidence before you've seen any evidence isn't going to work. I don't know if this is just me but have to say that I'm a practicing psychic and I still have doubts sometimes even after so much evidence that can't be denied.

Sometimes when I'm introduced to a new idea about something spiritual or psychic, I have a lot of resistance. Like, when I learned about parallel lives, I just felt like it was a load of rubbish.

Also, sometimes before a reading I have felt anxiety and I'd ask my Guides 'are you sure this is the right information?'. They always tell me it is and it makes sense to the client so I've learned to trust even when I'm anxious I might be wrong.

Whether you're a practicing psychic or not, you just have to be open to taking that risk of being wrong and it all being a load of rubbish. It usually isn't if you learn how to do it properly, though

[Harmonium]

That's a really awesome reply Anna, especially from a practicing psychic.

It's true, I've had precognitive dreams, and many intuition and prediction experiences, and sometimes, it's like that voice of doubt in your head can get louder, no matter what you've experienced.

[SimonaRich]

What psychic experiences do you wish to have? Third eye opening, talking to your spirit guides, getting guidance from your angels? There are many psychic areas you can explore.

The easiest one is to ask for signs or guidance from your angels. Get into the meditative state and just ask (in your mind, or aloud) for your angels to show their presence in your life with signs. Soon you will notice something in your life that will remind your of the presence of angels.

[Anthoneee]

Anna - Thanks for that very thoughtful post. I think that a part of my "problem" is that I really wish that there is more to life and I was too afraid to take the risk to see if these things are real or not. I get this really excited feeling inside of me when I read about these things that I didn't really want the feeling to go away if nothing happens. I will have to continue trying more paranormal things with a more objective stance.

SimonaRich - What I want to experience most is to contact my spirit guides/angels. I want to be able to have conversations with them and learn from them. Next time I meditate I will ask them from signs to help relax my doubts. Thanks for the great idea!

I'm still open for advice and interested to hear about other people's first steps. Thanks everyone.

[Anna Conlan]

Anna - Thanks for that very thoughtful post. I think that a part of my "problem" is that I really wish that there is more to life and I was too afraid to take the risk to see if these things are real or not. I get this really excited feeling inside of me when I read about these things that I didn't really want the feeling to go away if nothing happens. I will have to continue trying more paranormal things with a more objective stance.

I don't know if you believe in the Law of Attraction and the idea that you're creating your world and your reality, but I find this is a very empowering mindset to have running while you explore psychic stuff.

The Law of Attraction says that you create your reality based upon what you believe CAN happen, so in that sense experiencing psychic stuff is a choice.

You can choose to accept the belief and create it in your reality or you can opt not to. Either way, it's based upon that belief (or the absence of it) that psychic stuff/paranormal phenomena might exist.

So, I just want to put forward the idea that there's no point fearing that there may not be more to life, because you're completely in control of what there is and what there isn't in life. It's all up to you and what you want to experience in your personal reality.

Once that belief has been seeded that psychic stuff is possible and something you want to experience, then it tends to show up repeatedly until you start gaining confidence in it.

[Anthoneee]

Thanks again. You are really giving me a lot more understanding.

[Zanriel]

Seeing other people doing it and seeing how accurate they are can really help with belief in your own potential. At least, it's helped me. I tend to be very pragmatic, and sometimes I err on the side of too scientific, skeptical, and logical. I guess it's my computer background. I can definitely sympathize with you. It's such a contradiction because I cherish my spiritual, creative, and psychic side to the utmost degree. I live for it.

One thing that's helped me is to watch, read, and study successful, professional psychics. I watch Paranormal State faithfully. One of my favorite things about that show is when they bring in the psychic/medium. Chip Coffey is my hero. He'll walk into a case knowing nothing about it other than the address and within the first 5 minutes he's already given a summary of everything the audience found out within the first 10 minutes of the show. He's really really good.

John Holland is also awesome. There's a two part Youtube video that shows him working, and he's truly amazing. There are also a lot of books that are semi-autobiographical about psychics, with lots of anecdotes and success stories. One in particular is Second Sight by Judith Orloff.

[Milena]

I too am like Anthoneee and Zanriel, but I also get scared of the paranormal.

A couple years ago I took a great interest to lucid dreaming and out-of-body experiences. Every other night or so I would try to induce an OBE. I also maintained habits that led to frequent vivid dreams. Overall it was a good experience. But after a while I couldn't try OBE's anymore. It just freaked me out. I would be afraid to go to sleep, thinking I might actually have an OBE.

Other paranormal stuff isn't easy for me to accept either. Envisioning ghosts or spirits or someone I don't know suddenly being around me, just gives me the chills. A part of me wants to accept the possibility (hence the fear). But at the same time I realize that I've never experienced anything paranormal, therefore my acceptance/fear isn't justified.

Anyhoo - I'd love to see more comments in this thread. Maybe people could suggest "baby steps" into accepting the paranormal?

[GHI]

Here is how I got my first glimpse at the "paranormal":

I went to RANDOM.ORG - True Random Number Service and took a stab at guessing their random number before they fetch them.

I didn't "believe" but I was certainly open to the notion that such form of precognition is possible. And I got some interesting results.

For quite a long time, I would consistently guess more numbers correctly then expected by blind chance. It was a small effect (a success rate of 12% instead of 10%) but it was undeniable. I've continued this experiment for long enough a time to make sure it isn't a statistical fluke and that the effect was real. I've done many thousands of trials, and the odds against somebody getting 12% right by sheer chance are astronomical.

And then, after some time, it stopped working. Just as I was getting used to it and started to have fun...

In retro-respect, it seems that the universe simply wanted to give me a glimpse of the possibilities. Perhaps that's the reason it stopped working, once I got the point.

[Zanriel]

GHI, that's why Randi's $1,000,000 will never be paid out. There's something about once you start applying hard science to it that blocks psychic abilities and paranormal phenomena. Once you bring E.S.P. into a lab setting, it starts to fade away until it disappears. Spirit resists being put in any kind of box for long. It must have something to do with the importance of faith and belief - even if you could validate psychic abilities using hard science and logic, you would have missed the whole point. The idea is to get people away from faith in science and moving them towards faith in spirit. I think that's one of the main reasons why "magic" exists in the first place. It's to provide signposts on the way to enlightenment.

[GHI]

Originally Posted by Zanriel

The idea is to get people away from faith in science and moving them towards faith in spirit.

I think the idea is to get people away from "exteral analysis" to "experience".

You can certainly apply the scientific method to the spiritual world. People on this board are doing this all the time, without even realizing it. This, by itself, does not "kill" the paranormal experience. Its only when you insist on "stepping outside" and stop "experiencing", that the "magic" is lost.

It's interesting. Now that we mention it, I remember that my success rate went down whenever I stopped to feel actively engaged in the experiment. Now I understand why it was so.

[Zas]

Originally Posted by Zanriel

I think that's one of the main reasons why "magic" exists in the first place. It's to provide signposts on the way to enlightenment.

Ah, that's a very beautiful statement that resonates with me deeply.

[billyp]

Its actually a concept in physics - the act of observation alters the path of energy/matter. So putting the attention/pressure on a reader to "get it right" actually alters the physics of the reading.

[Adrianne]

Originally Posted by Zanriel

GHI, that's why Randi's $1,000,000 will never be paid out. There's something about once you start applying hard science to it that blocks psychic abilities and paranormal phenomena. Once you bring E.S.P. into a lab setting, it starts to fade away until it disappears. Spirit resists being put in any kind of box for long. It must have something to do with the importance of faith and belief - even if you could validate psychic abilities using hard science and logic, you would have missed the whole point. The idea is to get people away from faith in science and moving them towards faith in spirit. I think that's one of the main reasons why "magic" exists in the first place. It's to provide signposts on the way to enlightenment.

Psychic experiences, or anything for that matter, cannot be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt because that would totally interfere with free will and free choice. People would have no choice but to believe in it and to include it into their frame of reference for how reality is. But, reality can't be limited, so all potentials and possibilities have to exist and be viable. Does this make sense?

We get to choose what version of reality we subscribe to/ create. I choose one where psychic ability is real because it makes life magical, more fun and feels better to me. With this choice has come more and more "evidence" to support this reality I've chosen. But, there are still doubts and still there can be rationalizations that my mind will try to come up with at times. This is happening more and more rarely now as I have more experiences.

I relate a lot to Anna's comments as I've also received a lot of confirmation and confidence from doing psychic readings for others. And I too still have doubts come up about the information I receive and will feel very nervous before my sessions. But invariable, my clients totally "get" what I tell them. Still each time it's exciting and sometimes surprising It's just so cool that reality can work this way

[Zanriel]

Originally Posted by Adrianne

Psychic experiences, or anything for that matter, cannot be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt because that would totally interfere with free will and free choice. People would have no choice but to believe in it and to include it into their frame of reference for how reality is. But, reality can't be limited, so all potentials and possibilities have to exist and be viable. Does this make sense?

We get to choose what version of reality we subscribe to/ create. I choose one where psychic ability is real because it makes life magical, more fun and feels better to me. With this choice has come more and more "evidence" to support this reality I've chosen. But, there are still doubts and still there can be rationalizations that my mind will try to come up with at times. This is happening more and more rarely now as I have more experiences.

I relate a lot to Anna's comments as I've also received a lot of confirmation and confidence from doing psychic readings for others. And I too still have doubts come up about the information I receive and will feel very nervous before my sessions. But invariable, my clients totally "get" what I tell them. Still each time it's exciting and sometimes surprising It's just so cool that reality can work this way

Kind of, except there are varying degrees of consensus regarding certain phenomena. The law of gravity doesn't seem to care much about obeying the law of free will. So far there have been no documented cases I know of where free will has superseded the law of gravity. There are certain observable phenomena that stand up under repeated experiments, but unfortunately, psychic phenomena usually fails in this regard. I don't think it's so much about free will and the choice to hold onto a certain worldview, but I could be wrong.

Galileo and Copernicus successfully challenged the free will of the scientific establishment of their time and proved that the earth was round and was not the center of the universe. Where are the Galileo's and Copernicus's of the parapsychology world? I certainly wish more people WOULD step forward to challenge the skeptics. If I could, I would. That's one of the things that motivates me to pursue psychic development. I want to prove to myself that it's real but eventually, if I can reach a high enough level with it, I'd like to submit to a lab to prove psychic phenomena scientifically. At the very least, I'd like to contribute something to that cause, in whatever way I can.

Psychic phenomena is either real or it isn't. I don't think there's a gray area there. I don't think it boils down to holding a certain worldview either. I think the problem is that for some reason it fails under the rigors of science, even though I'm sure the majority view among laypeople is that there really is something more going on than meets the eye. Science is getting closer to establishing the existence of a higher intelligence or consciousness that forms the basis of physical reality. Surely psychic phenomena will next on the list.

I think part of the problem is that we're dealing with human beings here, with all their complexity, wonder, and frailty. We're not testing the interaction of inanimate objects, or the properties of chemicals when mixed in certain ways, we're talking about the ability of a human being to access information without the use of his/her physical senses. You can't expect a human being to submit to 1,000 scientific trials to prove a hypothesis without eventually becoming bored, fatigued, or breaking down in some way. Perhaps the problem is the current scientific method - maybe we're asking too much by way of proof.

[Adrianne]

Originally Posted by Zanriel

Kind of, except there are varying degrees of consensus regarding certain phenomena. The law of gravity doesn't seem to care much about obeying the law of free will. So far there have been no documented cases I know of where free will has superseded the law of gravity. There are certain observable phenomena that stand up under repeated experiments, but unfortunately, psychic phenomena usually fails in this regard. I don't think it's so much about free will and the choice to hold onto a certain worldview, but I could be wrong.

Galileo and Copernicus successfully challenged the free will of the scientific establishment of their time and proved that the earth was round and was not the center of the universe. Where are the Galileo's and Copernicus's of the parapsychology world? I certainly wish more people WOULD step forward to challenge the skeptics. If I could, I would. That's one of the things that motivates me to pursue psychic development. I want to prove to myself that it's real but eventually, if I can reach a high enough level with it, I'd like to submit to a lab to prove psychic phenomena scientifically. At the very least, I'd like to contribute something to that cause, in whatever way I can.

Psychic phenomena is either real or it isn't. I don't think there's a gray area there. I don't think it boils down to holding a certain worldview either. I think the problem is that for some reason it fails under the rigors of science, even though I'm sure the majority view among laypeople is that there really is something more going on than meets the eye. Science is getting closer to establishing the existence of a higher intelligence or consciousness that forms the basis of physical reality. Surely psychic phenomena will next on the list.

I think part of the problem is that we're dealing with human beings here, with all their complexity, wonder, and frailty. We're not testing the interaction of inanimate objects, or the properties of chemicals when mixed in certain ways, we're talking about the ability of a human being to access information without the use of his/her physical senses. You can't expect a human being to submit to 1,000 scientific trials to prove a hypothesis without eventually becoming bored, fatigued, or breaking down in some way. Perhaps the problem is the current scientific method - maybe we're asking too much by way of proof.

Thanks for engaging in this discussion with me I feel like scientific experiments can not been seen as an absolute way to prove the nature of reality because there is no way to account for the role of the observer - as in, how the expectations, beliefs, consciousness and energy of the ones conducting the experiments affects the outcome.

Have you ever seen the movie, What the Bleep, Down the Rabbit Hole? In it they discuss this "double slit experiment" done by scientists at the level of quantum particles where the results change depending on whether they observe the particle going through the slit or not. Here's a link to that video clip from the movie if you want to check it out.

And who knows, maybe if we relaxed our belief in gravity maybe we would start to find evidence that even the seeming absolutes are creations as well and are totally dependent on our belief in them. Then we might next figure out to levitate or fly? Just a thought

[codenamesmiley]

Originally Posted by Milena

I too am like Anthoneee and Zanriel, but I also get scared of the paranormal.

A couple years ago I took a great interest to lucid dreaming and out-of-body experiences. Every other night or so I would try to induce an OBE. I also maintained habits that led to frequent vivid dreams. Overall it was a good experience. But after a while I couldn't try OBE's anymore. It just freaked me out. I would be afraid to go to sleep, thinking I might actually have an OBE.

Other paranormal stuff isn't easy for me to accept either. Envisioning ghosts or spirits or someone I don't know suddenly being around me, just gives me the chills. A part of me wants to accept the possibility (hence the fear). But at the same time I realize that I've never experienced anything paranormal, therefore my acceptance/fear isn't justified.

Anyhoo - I'd love to see more comments in this thread. Maybe people could suggest "baby steps" into accepting the paranormal?

Try at the doctors office.(if you can afford or have medical insurance) If you are seeing spirits or phenomenon, tell your doctor. They will test your eyes, run brain scans and any other tests trying to figure out a medical explaination for it. If they cannot..you are half way to accepting your experiences as paranormal.

Have someone come out and test for emf, carbon minoxide leaks and test your drinking water. This will eliminate other possibilities for feeling or seeing otherworldly things...and if there are no problems there, you are even closer to accepting your experiences as paranormal.

Next, see a Shaman. They are very insightful, non-judgemental, and very spiritual. They can help you clear up any misunderstandings that you are having about yourself or your environment.

Sometimes, for a skeptic..it isn't about taking baby steps TOWARD the paranormal...but effectively approaching all the options that could explain your experiences, and debunking them first. Once you know what it is NOT...you open yourself up to more explaination as to what it COULD BE.

If there is no scientific medical or environmental explaination for your experiences, then you are half way to believing in something that science and gadgetry cannot yet explain. If you cannot explain your experiences, then you are one step closer to accepting the paranormal.

I hope this helps.
Blessings,
Rebecca

[Rdubya]

Anthonee-- It seems you and I are on similar paths right now. I too come from a background of computers,am in my last year at Penn State University, and am very skeptical of many of the information I have read. I have spent much of my time recently trying to contact my higher self. I am not a strong believer in the signs or voices in my head..at least yet. I believe that is more of the mind taking over and playing tricks.

I know I ask that I experience something that feels as real as typing on this keyboard, and as real as the air we breathe. When I feel that with my higher self, I will be much more open to these other ideas.

I think we are both looking for proof to ourselves. As much as we wish we could take everyones word for their psychic abilities, we use logic and reason too strongly as that is a part of our individuality. When I find success in this department I will surely let you know, but so far, I am not convinced that the minor things I have experienced are more than just my mind playing tricks.

Could it be my higher self? maybe.
Could it be my mind playing tricks? maybe.

I think we both want to be able to say YES as confident as those who seem to be..well..that confident!